Trump Tells Time Magazine He Doubts Peace With Iran Is Possible, Rubio Expels Iranian Delegation From New York

What's new since the Hormuz tanker strikes

After Reuters identified three tankers hit in the Oct. 1 Hormuz attack and Trump denied offering Iran any sanctions relief, the negotiating track collapsed further. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation to leave New York after talks stalled, according to Axios, citing two US sources. Gulf News reported Araghchi departed hours later and flew to Doha.

In an interview published early Thursday, Trump told Time Magazine the US could resume its military campaign after the midterm elections if Washington and Tehran fail to reach what he considers a satisfactory agreement. The midterms are scheduled for November. Trump said he originally expected the war to last six to eight weeks but kept going because he didn't want Iran's nuclear program to "come back in some different form," according to CBS News.

Asked how he squares calling himself a president of peace with threats to destroy Iran, Trump told Time: "Because by annihilating Iran, we've created peace in the world... With Iran, I don't think you could ever have peace." He separately told reporters Wednesday the war would be "won very quickly, one way or the other," and that 18 US servicemembers have died in the conflict, according to ABC News.

Trump claimed Iran's navy, air force and anti-aircraft systems are destroyed, that the country has "no money," and that Iranian inflation is running near 300 to 318 percent. None of those figures are independently verified in available reporting, and they're Trump's characterization, not a confirmed economic data point. Iran's Revolutionary Guard pushed back hard on the premise, telling Gulf News the US war effort has failed and calling on Americans to protest against Trump.

Iran reportedly weighing wider retaliation

Reuters sources told the Independent that Iranian commanders are reviewing plans to expand potential targets beyond US-linked assets in the Middle East to countries that support US operations, and possibly to locations outside the region, if Washington resumes large-scale strikes. Hamidreza Azizi, a senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Tehran appears "determined not to respond symbolically to a symbolic move" and would rather escalate to reestablish deterrence.

This is an allegation from anonymous Iranian officials relayed through Reuters, not a public Iranian government threat, and it hasn't been independently confirmed. It should be read as a reported assessment of internal deliberations, not a declared policy.

The Fairford dispute: Netanyahu accuses Britain

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Israel warned Britain weeks in advance about an Iranian-linked plot near RAF Fairford, the air base used by US forces to launch Iran strikes. Netanyahu said London responded by joining 11 other nations in sanctioning products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Sept. 8, just after receiving the intelligence. "We gave the Brits the intel... and pretty much the next day, they slapped sanctions on us," Netanyahu said, according to CBS News.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there are "strong indications" Iran was involved in the suspicious activity that led to five arrests near the base on Sunday, but no public evidence has been released, and no charges have been filed. The men were released on bail. Police said in British media reports that the men could have been "either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state," and that one of the five called police himself roughly an hour before a resident reported the group. No viable explosives or weapons were found, only plastic drums and a quantity of gasoline, according to CBS News. Burnham's government has not publicly responded to Netanyahu's specific timeline claim in available reporting, so his account of cause and effect remains his characterization, not an established fact.

Fractures inside Tehran

Gulf News reported that hardline Iranian lawmaker Hamid Rasaei became the first sitting member of parliament imprisoned during his term, sentenced to 10 months by Iran's Special Clerical Court over a 2024 article accusing Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf of manipulating documents. The ruling, reported by the UK-based outlet Iran International, has deepened splits inside Iran's conservative faction over whether to keep negotiating with Washington at all.

Separately, Pakistan pledged to defend Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed Houthi attacks "by whatever means," Gulf News reported, a sign the conflict's regional alignments keep shifting as the war grinds on.

What's unresolved

Oil markets whipsawed this week: Brent rose above $106 Monday after Trump rejected an Iranian Hormuz-reopening proposal, then fell 2.5% Tuesday on signs of recovering Gulf exports, before the Wednesday tanker strikes pushed prices back up. With Rubio's delegation expulsion and Trump's post-midterm strike threat now on the table, the open question is whether either side returns to direct talks before November, or whether Iran's reported plans to widen its target list turn into an actual attack outside the Middle East.